Analysis and comment from Memphis, Tennessee, on media, politics, culture, science, my life and anything else that catches my eye.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Waaaauuuggghhh!

I just had to post on this, as I was there to witness the event. My gaming buddy, Mark, won an important tournament victory on Wednesday. Here's the story.

I've posted in the past on playing a tabletop wargame called Epic: Armageddon. I'm only a middling player, but it's a lot of fun. Mark, though, has been fine-tuning and tweaking his army list all year so that his Orks (think large, green, ugly and violent) are a formidable force. My Space Marines (the best of the Emperor's best) rarely beat them any more.

His opponent, Greg, is a long time player and is mighty good. I sat on the sidelines -- trying hard to be quiet, not point things out or kibitz -- and just watched the play. It was a really, really hard-fought game. No one made any big mistakes, so it was pure strategy and luck. Just a great game.

Mark's write-up presupposes some knowledge of the game, but he has pictures! And he was the tournament champion, his first major win! He was incredibly pumped after, and deservedly so. Go on over and wish him congrats.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Yep, Definitely Over

The surest sign that Harold Ford Jr has turned the corner to Loserville? The lunatics are using Klan imagery. It's the last refuge of intellectually bankrupt scoundrels who know they've lost and have nothing left.

I had been a bit worried. Look at some of the data in this poll from SurveyUSA. Look at the Corker/Ford poll data, under "Ideology." See "Moderates?" They break out 2 to 1 for Ford. They're the people Ford is desperate to get.

Stuff like the extremism you see at KnoxViews is going to poison that well. It's kinda surprising that the kids over at the Flypaper Theory haven't joined in, but then they've been hacking at Ford, not Corker, for a while now.

Over.

INSTANT UPDATE: Ahahahahaha! And just now, this afternoon, the latest Lefty hysteria is upon us: jungle drums! That's right. Supposedly this ad (Warning: MP3 file will load into your browser.) has "jungle drums" playing behind Ford's name, in an attempt to scare listeners with racist innuendo.

Hey, clue-deficient Americans, it's called symphonic film music. Those are tympani, an instrument found in Euro-American orchestras and symphonies. They are employed to heighten drama. You want real "jungle drums?" Listen to the opening theme from Battlestar Galactica.

But you can't convince people who see ghosts in every shadow that every shadow doesn't have a ghost. Oh! Wait. Did I just say ghost, in a post talking about Ford? Was that some deeply subtle, hidden racist comment I buried subliminally?

This is getting ludicrous. It really is. Tennessee's Democratic Left believes it's lost the momentum in the Senate race and so everything is now all-stops-out for them. They are reaching for anything, it seems. Turning standard, bland symphonic music into race-baiting.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Or take the anti-Ford ad that Democrats have called "racist" because a white bimbo mimes holding a cell phone and says, "Call me." to Harold. Someohow, after years of being told by Democrats and leftists that interracial dating is OK, they're suddenly seeing it as a bad thing.

Somehow, the choice of a blonde bimbo has some secret meaning. Well... no. She looks exactly like the kind of women you find at Playboy parties: bottle-blonde with roots showing and too much makeup, a badly stylised idea of what's trendy, hot and sexy. Racist? Not hardly. If anything, it's sexist. She's a modern, empowered young woman unafraid to let a powerful man know that she's attracted. And Democrats are angry at that? Sheesh....

I was right. Ford's been knocked off his stride. His supporters sense it and now they're over-compensating for him. Over-compensating wildly.

Yep. Over.

SERVICE NOTE: Blogger is doing maintenance this evening and the blog has been intermittently unavailable. It will apparently be going on for a while. Sorry if you can't access Half-Bakered with typical Internet ease.

"MY KUNG FU IS STRONGER THAN YOURS" UPDATE: Randy Neal, the proprietor of the blog linked above, has apparently noticed the problem and schoolmarmly advises the troops to cool it:

Denounce the negative, disgusting ads, too, but don't get goaded into responding in kind.

"Goaded?" Blog reports show up claiming "jungle drums" and racism and Democrats immediately roll out the Nazis and Klan. No goading; it's a reflex reaction. Or a natural instinct.

It's an admission that Corker is winning. "Don't scare the folks we're trying to woo. Wait until the election's over."

Anyway, in comments further down, Neal writes:

Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree with you 100% on that. They are using the reverse racist ju-jitsu to great effect to innoculate their candidate. And they should be told that forcefully.

The trouble is that when you cross the line into enemy territory, you let them set the rules of engagement. All I'm saying is don't get sucked in.

Yeah, because my kung fu is stronger than his, I guess. His point about sticking to issues is well taken and should be listened to by his legions. Because it was them who first cried wolf.

Some Democrat devised this triple-reverse "nuh-uh!" move a while back: A Republican / Christian / right-winger / traditionalist says or does something. Some easily offended or partisan tool quickly leaps up to cry foul, whatever the merit of the charge. (Remember the "niggardly" flap?) The R/C/r-w/t responds, "Oh please. Am not." And then the Nazi and Klan symbols and photoshops start flying. Then the story is no longer the charge, but the conflict and the charge.

Look at Neal trying to defend the lunatics:

The image of the white woman giggling about Harold and telling him to call me evokes one of the deep-rooted Southern taboos about interracial sex. It used to be a lynching offense for black men.

To paraphrase Freud: Sometimes a bimbo is just a bimbo. As noted above, she was intended to "evoke" a Playboy playmate/party girl -- the subject of the ad.

Notice how he manages to go straight to lynching? Who mentioned that? Why, he did. Just now. He gets to chastise his critics and stir the pot a bit deeper. Sly and revolting at the same time; unless he did it unconsciously and then it just tells you about his frame of mind.

If you want to talk offensive subliminals, I can play that game. Let's go back to Ford's "kick the dog" ad. First of all, whose house is this he's walking through? His? Niiiiiiice. It's the kind of kitchen a whole lot of middle-class folks would like to have.

Or is it all just me over-reacting, over-reaching, straining? Looking for something that's not there.

When Democrats do this sort of thing, of course it's true and statements by their targets are "denials." But if Republicans do this sort of thing? It's crazy! It's "... using the reverse racist ju-jitsu to great effect...."

Yep, the race is over.

AND NOW, THE CAPPER The Corker campaign has now pointed out that the "jungle drums" music was used in another, prior, ad. This one. So, since the opening "jungle drums" play under an image of Ol' Bob, does that mean the campaign wanted you to think of him as a scary black man?

And, to see the kinds of knots, the kinds of dank, scary places, that Democrats get themselves into read this article looking at Chris Matthews. Here's what Matthews says about a Michael Steele (black Republican running for governor of Maryland) ad:

I love the ads, my wife loves the ads, they're really funny, some of them. And very unthreatening. An African-American guy, it seems, has to run an ad that's so unthreatening that he's almost child-like in his presentation, but it seems to be working.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The Other Ford Ambush

Harold Ford's "ambush" of Bob Corker last Friday isn't the first time that Fords have staged an ambush.

Best Sporting EventFord family smackdown. On July 10th, Fords John (state senator) and Joe (commissioner) and Jake and Isaac (both Harold Sr.'s sons) entered the ring during a Memphis Wrestling event. They were there to back up a friend getting whupped by a threesome that included Jerry "The King" Lawler.

That's the Memphis Flyer's take on that epic ambush at the MidSouth Coliseum. I had almost forgotten this incident from two years ago, July 2004.

This is the first time that Jimmy Hart and myself had the chance to speak to Memphis about the big ambush that took place at the Midsouth Coliseum.

Don't try to deny that was an ambush, Cory. You had your buddys, the Ford Family. There was John,Joe,Isaac,Jake and the entire Ford family. Are there any female Fords? You asked all your buddies to save you, Cory.

Cory, I invited them to the Coliseum and I had no part in them in the ring. The entered the ring on their own. They came to save me....

You had your buddies hits the ring. The Fords are one of the most influential families in Memphis. They are congressmen, senators etc. The[y] are all that and a bag of chips as Maclin would say. You tried to sway public opinion against the King.

Cory, You are doing it yourself.

Jerry Lawler, The only reason that I did not punch out the Ford family is because they brought their Children with them. I have been wanting to lay out Joe Ford out a long time ago. I would of punched his lights out. His teeth would of been rolling around the ring like Chic lets but out of respect for the kids I did not do anything.

That's a garbled transcript of wrestling promoter Cory Maclin and wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler. Hardly seems like it's been two years ago. That "John" is former State Senator John Ford and that "Jake" is current Independent 9th Congressional District candidate Jake "Joke" Ford and that "Joe" is Shelby County Commisioner Joe Ford.

They actually entered the ring and began to fight! It was caught on tape and was shown on the local news as one of those "can you believe it?" moments. I've been trying to track down the video but with no luck so far.

Ah, Summer '04. I knew even back then that little bit of theater would come back to haunt someone. It seems that time is now and that someone is Harold Jr.

And it shows, yet again, that Harold is a Ford. You can see that "ambushes" run in the family.

TUESDAY EVENING UPDATE: We're getting closer! I've found the original WMC story now. Some choice quotes:

In the video you can see as State Senator John Ford enters the fray. Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford is there, as are the younger Isaac Ford and his brother Jake Ford. You can see Jake Ford whipping Lawler with his belt....

"I know I put a whipping on Jimmy Hart. And I know I put a little whipping on Jerry Lawler leaving that ring," said Jake Ford.

The family claims the event was harmless. Sources tell Action News Five that part of it might have been designed to promote Jake Ford as a professional wrestler....

Both State Senator John Ford and Congressman Harold Ford Junior refused comment tonight. Congressman Harold Ford Jr. was not a part of Saturday's smackdown.

I've got more emails out, especially to WMC, trying to get that video. I'll update as I learn more.

Here's what the Commercial Appeal's Wendi Thomas had to say at the time:

Now, if County Mayor A C Wharton were to get in the ring, it might befunny. Such behavior would stand in stark contrast to his polishedprofessional demeanor; the satire would be overwhelming. Not so muchwith the Fords, whose personal lives tend toward the messy.

Given that the public deems politicians only slightly more honorablethan used-car salesmen, why would four Fords squander even a smidgenof credibility on a stupid stunt?

"Some people probably would say that, but everyone I've heard fromsaid, 'Congratulations, you won the match,' " Joe Ford said.

"It wasn't anything I was ashamed of."

Saving the Ford family from themselves (Harold Jr. excepted) may be afrustrating exercise in futility.

There's also a clip of a Ford / Corker pairing from Sunday night on CNN. Listen for the part where Ford disappears his aunt Ophelia from the family. (Yes, clueless literalists, I know what he meant to say and I'm sure most Tennesseans will here it too. But anyone unfamiliar with the Ford family -- in this case nearly everyone viewing CNN -- will think he has no auntie!) Also watch how he puts words into Corker's mouth -- right in front of you! -- by claiming Corker called Harold Ford Sr and Jr "crooks." Clever, but also the very, very thing he is railing against. Does he think people are this stupid?